What watt amplifier will power a 1200 watt subwoofer?

Answer 1

1200W is the either the MAXIMUM power that a passive subwoofer (driver only) can HANDLE or the power rating of the amplifier on an active subwoofer (amp built-in).

If passive, you can use pretty much any amplifier as long as it's 1200W or under. You can even use an amp that is > 1200W -- you just can't push it past 1200W or you risk damaging your sub. The relative loudness at a given dial on the volume knob is dependent on the sensitivity of the sub (measured in dB). Also bear in mind that power varies with resistance so an amp that pushes 1200W @ 4 ohm will not be able to deliver 1200W to an 8 ohm speaker -- often times it can only deliver 1/2 the power (i.e. 600W @ 8 ohm in this case).

If active, well the sub already has an amp so you just need to feed it a line-level or speaker-level signal.

Either way if you're talking about your car or home I guarantee you won't be pushing ANYWHERE near 1200W -- that's window-shattering, deafening loud. Just to put things into perspective, I use an amp that's rated at 10 W into 8 ohms and never turn the volume dial past 1 or 2 o'clock, which means the amp is never delivering more than maybe 6 or 7 watts. If you can get remotely close to 1200W that means the amp is so inefficient that it'll probably be melting and/or burning down your house/car at that point.